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One key mindshift is to realize that many of the newer sets are more in line with a 3D puzzle than a creative 1000's of blocks to invent your own thing. Its a lot less frustrating when you realize the replay value is in taking down the set and doing it again next year or passing it on to a friend - in a manner more analogous to how puzzles are engaged with.

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> the replay value is in taking down the set and doing it again next year

There is no end to the “replay value” in taking whatever miscellaneous collection of legos you have and making whatever you want out of them. This is what most kids do. Each new set gets added to the mixed-up pile. (This works because all of the pieces consistently follow a common geometric design, and connect together using a small handful of common interfaces. Note: sorting the collection can be helpful for finding pieces.)

Making the set following the instructions and then displaying the finished model on a shelf, packing the pieces back in its box, or reselling the kit is something more common among adults.

The “follow 3d-puzzle instructions” way of playing is pretty shallow. Even the hardest lego sets aren’t really that hard, and with a couple years experience even very young children can do them. (A 5 or 6 year-old can easily make the sets that claim on the box to be for age 11+ or whatever, with a couple years’ occasional experience.)

But if you like 3d puzzles, legos are pretty good for inventing new ones, and there are a wide variety of ways to make puzzles that are harder than the instructions shipped with the pieces.

The “follow 3d-puzzle instructions” way of playing is pretty shallow.

>> I don't disagree that its shallow but its similar to a jigsaw puzzle, sometimes you want to just do something to keep your mind active and have a sense of accomplishment.

>> As mentioned in the other posts, there are just a lot of custom parts in the new "licensed" sets to have a proper return on investment - particularly once Harry Potter, Marvel, Architecture, Star Wars all get jumbled together. The suggestion for creative play is to buy the City Legos or 1000 random piece sets which seems to scratch this itch really well.

Nearly all of the parts in a “Harry Potter” or “Star Wars” set are generic. And there’s nothing stopping you from making up a game/story mixing robots with your wizards.

Also, even the "non-generic" parts see plenty of reuse. For example, the wand pieces originally created for the Harry Potter sets have regularly popped up in unrelated sets as a decorative part of builds.

> There is no end to the “replay value” in taking whatever miscellaneous collection of legos you have and making whatever you want out of them. This is what most kids do.

It’s interesting watching my sister’s kids interact with lego. Her daughter (the oldest) loves rules, and loves following the instructions on the set. Her (younger) son loves destroying her sets and mixing things up. He loves all the “boy” lego sets - flames, dragons, motorbikes, you name it.

I’ve been trying to get them to relax into building whatever they want with their bricks. “Oh there’s the eyes for a face. Which piece is a mouth?” “Wow cool motorbike. I wonder if this brick would look good as a helmet?”. I try to make bad suggestions and get them to find something better.

I struggle to break free from the instructions a lot of the time too. I think my problem with modern lego is how many individual elements there are. It doesn’t feel like fun creative constraints when you have so many different pieces to choose from. More like, whatever element I use, I feel like there was something better out there I didn’t think of. The huge variety of pieces makes the sets look great - so great that it overshadows anything I make myself. I love lego; but I wish they embraced the constraints of the medium more and let their sets be more blocky. Minecraft’s 1x1x1 block shape constraint makes the game better, not worse.

Something like this might be useful:

https://www.amazon.com/Lego-Ideas-Book-Unlock-Imagination/dp...

I feel like people completely unnecessary put moral value on not following manual. There is nothing wrong with following it. There is nothing wrong if that girl wants to keep some building and play with them. She may or may not build own later, most kids move between the two kinds of play.

If younger brother dostroyed her own creation, in my experience, the anger is even higher. And loss harder to fix - you can help to fix it if done based on manual. You just can't if it was own.

The play is whatever kids do with it. When we demand that they play in certain way, so that they become more artistic ones, it is nit a play anymore. It is educational activity.

One game I have enjoyed with my 5-year-old is to give two (or more) people an identical collection of 20–50 miscellaneous pieces (just pull pairs of identical pieces randomly and dump into 2 piles) and then each make something and compare.

Or have one person make something and see if the other person can copy it, then switch.

As a kid I had a ton of legos and my main obsession were technic sets (Still have them). But, before technic sets I had a bunch of the early town themed sets. So for example if you bought the gas station, it comes with a little mechanic figure and tow truck. Most of the blocks were standard and a few specialty blocks rounded out the set like windows, doors, auto chassis parts, wheels, even trees and plants. Of course the majority of the blocks were generic enough so you could build whatever. Even the technic sets gave you a ton of freedom to build whatever.

Now have a look at the modern licensed sets and notice how MOST of the pieces are specialty. Those specialty parts are there to add more features but they are completely useless outside of their intended position in the licensed puzzle. How do you turn that fancy haunted house into a boat or truck? Lame.

Assuming you're talking this one - https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/haunted-house-10273 - I'm failing to see the specialty parts, outside of a couple of things like the spiderweb. Even the organ is brick-built from parts that could be repurposed in a number of ways (for example, exhaust pipes on a car or truck).

That is not even close to what I am describing. A licensed set is a set that contains licensed material like star wars and marvel. e.g. https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/marvel

There are sets that are just busts of characters heads like darth vader or an infinity hand, whatever that is, which are more of a one time build puzzle rather than a palette you can turn into something else.

I'm still not seeing what you're talking about. The Darth Vader head and the Infinity Gauntlet, for example, are both built out of standard pieces. Sure, it's a limited color palette, but it still wouldn't be hard to repurpose either to use for parts of a spaceship or themed building or whatever. Even on the page you linked, the only really specialized parts on display are the spiderwebs, the Gargantos tentacles, and the Venom teeth; everything else is ordinary brick-built stuff, including the large robots/mechs, which are built on a Technic frame rather than any specialized parts.

I see my kids use modern sets just the way I did as a kid.

I would follow the directions to build the thing. Over time I would break it down and add it to my lego pile from which I made random things.

Sure, some pieces are very specific. But you can still take those specific pieces and add it to some other random very specific piece.

As far as I can tell, legos haven't changed that much in 30 years. There were a lot of specially crafted pieces back then too.

But the colors! Back then you had black, white, blue, yellow, green and red. And today? You even have two different shades of light blue.

from what I've seen, kids are likely to just ignore all the colors and just grab the shape they're looking for

I would say it's more like model building than a 3D puzzle.

My 4- year old enjoys building Lego kits from instructions and I think it is a good learning tool that teaches to follow some rules (4 year olds don't have much patience but they can build it). The only problem that I find is that these instructions are often wrong and confusing and that's where I have to step in and become creative to get the puzzle in a finished state.

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